Help Me Help Homeless Veterans

Bullies!

I know sales pitches are frowned upon here, but I also know this community appreciates the work our armed forces provide, so I hope you'll give this post a chance.

I'm raising funds to help homeless and at-risk veterans in Southern California through two non-profits: Boot Campaign and Veterans First. All monies raised go directly to Veterans First, and they are incredibly efficient with their funds, having 96% of all monies go directly towards their programs rather than overhead costs.

Why am I doing this? Well, it's for my marketing class, but when I saw the opportunity to help those who helped us, I jumped at the chance (versus a credit union or other projects).

Veterans First has a number of homes for veterans where they provide job skills training and case management to help them get back on their feet. You can help ensure these programs keep running and our homeless veterans get taken care of.

The funds are being raised via Boot Campaign, which is an awesome campaign in and of itself.

Approximately one-third of our nation's adult homeless population has served in the United States Armed Forces, while many others who have served and their families are considered to be low-income and live in substandard conditions. Many of these homeless and at risk veterans live with the lingering effects of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) from their service in a combat theater in addition to physical disabilities from service, mental health and substance abuse problems.

According to the United States Veterans Administration (VA), there are more than 107,000 homeless veterans on any given night nationwide with twice that number experiencing some form of homelessness over the course of the year. Specifically, Orange County has approximately 3,500 homeless veterans within its borders. While many homeless veterans are from the Vietnam era, we are seeing a growing number of Desert Storm and recent Iraq and Afghanistan veterans accessing our program, many of whom are families.

Unfortunately, the VA does not have the resources to assist all of our veterans in need. Thus, the VA partners with community-based organizations such as Veterans First to fill their backlog and assist our veterans with the much needed services that our brave men and women have rightfully earned.

"The pedant is he who finds it impossible to read criticism of himself without immediately reaching for his pen and replying to the effect that the accusation is a gross insult to his person. He is, in effect, a man unable to laugh at himself."—Sigmund Freud, The Ego and the Id.